This was posted to an animal rescue Yahoo group. With Cathy's permission, I'm posting it here. Cathy is in New Orleans right now returning Spicer to his family - the cat she rescued and loves.
With all of the serious problems at hand I thought you'd like to hear of a success.
Last October I went to
Well, some volunteers from an organization named STEALTH have been trying to match up pets with their owners all over the country. They don't even live there. One of them put Beauregard's picture on a flier in the neighborhood where I found him and his family saw it and called. It's definitely him from the pictures they sent and I'm going to take him back to his home
next week. His real name is Spicer.
Yes, I'm a little sad but I've worked through it and the reunion is going to be amazing! I'm hoping to video tape it so everyone can see how it goes.
His family had to evacuate when the waters started to rise and he was out gallavanting around, so they had to leave without him. They took his mom-cat, sister and their dogs.
It's been a year and a week since I picked him up. We all can't believe he going home after all this time. He has inspired my artwork - I keep drawing cats with weird eyes and ears- and I hope to finish the story I'm writing about how he survived for 5 weeks after the storm, through HIS EYES ! I will MISS him but I'm OK and looking forward to the trip.
If anyone is in New Orleans Next Fri Nov 3rd and want's to be a part of it or to help video tape it, you're welcome to come. Just call me.
I'll let you all know how it turns out.
Thanks for being here,
Cathy
This is just one of the many thoughts and reactions I have to this: anyone who has ever fostered and loved an animal that they had to give up feels a loss. It's normal to feel sad for a period of time. But all these people who are now being sued or about to be sued have known for 4, 8, 12 months or longer that the cat or dog they "adopted" belongs to someone else who wants it back. If they had returned the pet THEN, they would be over it by now. They would have moved on, perhaps adopting another one from their local shelter. They would not still be sad and upset. Plus, like every foster I know who returned their Katrina pet to its rightful owner, the sadness they felt was balanced by the joy they experienced from helping a family reunite and heal.
It is the adopters (who have refused to return Master Tank, Nila, Missy, Jazz, Nahnook, Goldie, Timmy, Romeo, Turtle, Mittens, Chelsea, Milo, Max and many many other cats & dogs) who need to move on and get another pet, not the Katrina survivors who are their legal owners.
4 comments:
And how many pets have had severe -- AND NEEDLESS -- cases of separation anxiety imposed upon them because so-called fosters or unethical adopters refused to return them to their true owners when they first had an opportunity. Prolong the separation needlessly, deepen the anxiety and the grief for the animal. When you have a chance to return an animal to his family do it without any further delay. Do not make it more difficult for the animal and a fellow human being to heal. If you don't, you are hurting two (or more) beings.
"Over it" by now?? jeez you have no clue...but then how could you, you won't even allow any info about YOUR "Katrina" dog to be posted, won't allow the record numbers to be available, and see to it that anything posted on the dog is removed. You have no clue.
First to Cathy thank you so much for rescuing this big lug of a boy. Thank you for loving him and soothing his fears and anxieties. Thank you for searching for his owners and accepting SV's help. Thank you for keeping Spicers needs in mind and putting your own aside to help this family heal.
Rescuers/fosters/reuniters like yourself are the true example of compassion for humans and animals, what is right with the world.
For Anonymous # 2......what is your problem? You seem to be obsessed with harrasing Anita for helping these families to heal.
You are the one who has "no clue". Anita's dog is posted 4 times on petfinder, and numerous different people have searched for his original owners since last September. All his record numbers are readily available and anyone who knew him and was searching for him would be able to find him right away on the AERN. I don't know why you are incapable of doing so.
Unlike the animals Anita mentions in the bottom of her post, her dog has has never been hidden since he was rescued. Everything has been done to locate the orginal owners. No owners have ever stepped up, in fact no one has ever emailed any of the listings even thinking it might be their dog.
Anita keep up the good fight. I am sorry you are the target of weirdos like anonymous #2.
If anonymous of 12:30 is the same person who was asking at the NOLA board about Anita's dog ad nauseum many months ago, I cannot say that I blame Anita for being circumspect about providing specific information about the dog to this individual.
That person's public queries/challenges drove me to ask Anita what was going on and ask to see the records myself and she showed them to me. They had been posted at Petfinder, with a photograph and everything, for all the world to see. Anyone looking for a dog could have accessed those records readily. No big mystery.
I would venture that the difference between me and that person whoever they are, that allowed Anita to feel comfortable sharing information about the dog, appears to be that I do not present as a stalker, nor am I obsessing about Anita and her life as this person appears to be doing -- after all this time. What caring pet guardian would release information about an animal in their care to an individual who seems to have some kind of personality problem and possible stalking/harassment tendencies?
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